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Oct. 26 Anibal Sanchez pregame interview

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Q. Could you talk about what goes through your head when you see your team down 2 0, and you're going to come home to an excited crowd but maybe some more pressure than you might have expected in this start?

ANIBAL SANCHEZ: No, I don't think too much about the two games. I know we're down, like you said, for two games, but that's in the past. I think at this moment every day we start over. Tomorrow we need to start over. We need to forget what happened in San Francisco. I know we've got the talent. That's why we're here. We've got a pretty good team, so we're going to fight it to the end. We've got a long way to go, so we've got to keep working. Tomorrow I'm going to be on the mound and going to focus on for get us a win for the team.

Q. You were part of the Sox system in '04 when that team came back from 3 0 to beat the Yankees. I know you weren't with the big league club, but do you remember the mentality of that group, and what made them special and able to come back from a 3 0 deficit?

ANIBAL SANCHEZ: Yeah, I remember that story. I think that's the one in '04, and they're back from 3 0. We saw a couple plays I was in Venezuela at this point, and wasn't in the big club. But it's like always I say or what I think, if we've got a chance to play another game, we're safe. So everything ends on November 1st. If we have to play seven games, we're working for that. We need to win four more games for a win, so we need to keep fighting.

Q. Jim Leyland talked about being able to relax but also concentrate. How do you do that with the pressure of a Game 3 of the World Series?

ANIBAL SANCHEZ: You know, I don't feel too much pressure about it. I think one day when I pitched in New York on my last press conference, I said, this thing grow too much in Oakland. We feel a lot of pressure right there. We feel I think the worst part of our career. That field is loud, crazy. I think it's a hard place to concentrate or be focused on the game. That happened to me in the first couple pitches, really hard for feel the game, for do like you used to do. So I think tomorrow, I think everybody is going to be relaxed. We know we are home, we play really good here. We're going to keep doing the same. We need to make some runs. I know the hitters hit down for five days and come to play for a long flight. But tomorrow is going to be a different story. They won home, we need to win at home.

Q. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be kind of cold and raw, and some pitchers talk about how much more difficult it is in colder weather to grip, particularly a breaking ball. Do you notice that your breaking ball breaks differently in cold weather? And how do you go about trying to ensure that you have a really good feel for it?

ANIBAL SANCHEZ: I think the weather just feels for the fans. I think when the nine players are on the field, I'm pretty sure nobody feels anything, especially for the pitcher. They think too much, they think about what pitch you have to make, what you have to do. The weather doesn't bother us too much, because the cold, when you play on the hot field, you don't have to think too much about it. Everybody go to the field, and nobody gonna think too much on the weather.

Q. When you got traded by the Red Sox, they went to the World Series the year after that. Did you wonder if that was your chance to go to the World Series and wonder when you might get there?

ANIBAL SANCHEZ: You know, at that point I was in the Minor Leagues. I don't play Big Leagues at all. I know I got pretty good chance for playing in the Big Leagues. But at this point I understand that's part of the business, even this year. This year I know my free agents is coming. I was talking with my wife and our situation. She was pregnant I prepare for it in Spring Training and say, hey, this can happen. No, she reported. That's part of the game, part of the business. And when you are going to be a free agent, some teams are going to make some move for you or they might sign you. So we have to get ready for trade line.

Q. What do you remember about your time in Boston?

ANIBAL SANCHEZ: In '05 I think I got a pretty good season that I went to the Futures Game, and I pitched very well, and I come through that way. I saw my goal really close, and I keep at this point I start working more hard.

Q. I know when you were traded here mid season it was kind of a hectic time for you and your family. Can you sort of take us through that, and how long did it take to get settled in here in Detroit?

ANIBAL SANCHEZ: I think it's more the change of family, the place. It's like the team. I don't know I just know a couple players. I know they've got a lot of Latin players, but I just know Miggy and Infante. But the thing is that they make me comfortable quickly. I know I've got pretty bad starts in the beginning of my trade. I don't know too much the hitters, but after that, I make my adjustment, and like I said, we prepared for it. I just started talking with my wife from Spring Training, so at this point we was already.

Q. You've talked a lot over the last few weeks about getting used to having different catchers than you had in Florida. How did you and Alex go through the process of getting to know each other, getting to know the pitch tendencies, getting into, I guess, a rapport and agreement on how to approach guys?

ANIBAL SANCHEZ: Yeah, in the beginning, so we don't know. We don't know anything they don't know me and I don't know the catchers. But I understand something; like I pitch good in the National League with my game, with my pitch, with my mental. So that's what I tried to let Laird and Avila know, like hey, that's my game, that's what I used to do. So just make some pitch. We talked a lot before the games. We tried to talk between starts, just for know a lot, and that's worked in September and thus far.

Q. Having ten foreign born players, most from Latin America, Venezuela or the Dominican, how does it make this team different, whether it be in the clubhouse or on the field from those other teams you played with?

ANIBAL SANCHEZ: You know, when you play with the Latin players, like with the funny guys like Dotel or something like that, they make everything funny, they make everything so relaxed in the clubhouse before the games. I'm not the kind of pitcher that has to be focused two days before the game. I try to be focused right when I go to the mound. I try to be it's really hard, like think too much before. I try to be the more relaxed I can, and these guys make everything so funny, so relaxed. I think it's very good, especially when you're speaking the same language.